Intellectually Disabled Client Granted Relief by Supreme Court

March 31, 2017

The U.S. Supreme Court granted relief to a pro bono client, Texas death row inmate Bobby Moore, who was sentenced to death for a 1980 murder. In 2015, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA), Texas' highest criminal court, rejected Bobby Moore's claim that he cannot constitutionally be executed because he is intellectually disabled. The Supreme Court vacated the TCCA's judgment and remanded the case in a 5-3 majority decision written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, holding that Texas had erred by applying out-of-date and unscientific standards in rejecting Bobby Moore's intellectual disability claim.